Billings ovulation method

The Billings method is a method of natural family planning ( NFP ). It goes back to the Australian neurologist John Billings. He realized that changes the mucus at the cervix just before ovulation and can thus be used to determine the fertile phase of the cycle. In this method, the observed daily cervix mucus and listed its composition into a table. Since the texture changed before and around ovulation, one can conclude by evaluating the records of an imminent ovulation.

During the fertile phase of cervical mucus is lumpy or thick and forms a plug in the cervix. If the mucus is very tough on the outside, not to watch, and the vagina looks "dry". The closer to ovulation, the smoother and clearer the mucus. In the highly fertile phase he is " spinnable ", that is, it can be drawn between two sheets of toilet paper, or between the fingers into threads. If ovulation occurred, the mucus will again tough or disappears completely. Due to fluctuations in hormone levels, which in turn affects the production of mucus, but it can recurrent reinforces for " fruitful" acting mucus come without ovulation follows. Such individual episodes can lead to the false assumption, an ovulation has already occurred, and thus set the reliability of the method decreased. The Billings method further assumes that only dryness is a sign of infertility and safe days. However, since many women can observe mucus throughout the cycle, the mucus determination is not a satisfactory method for the determination of infertile days for them.

The method is suitable for couples who want children to narrow down the fertile period.

Applying this method of contraception at, there is a risk that ovulation takes place at a different time than expected and it comes to an unwanted pregnancy or even in the same cycle, a second ovulation takes place (see also Superfekundation ). The chance of becoming pregnant is relatively high: located on the Pearl Index, the Billings method at about 15; which means that about 15 out of 100 pregnant women who, one year (twelve cycles) prevent long.

The combination of Billings with the temperature method minimizes this risk: the resulting from the combination symptothermal method is - when used properly - with a Pearl index of 0.26 as safe as birth control pills. However, since the method requires comparatively much experience and discipline, is practically watched Pearl index 2 to 20